Day 96 - Before and after pics

So! Today, as reported yesterday, was supposed to be Core Synergistics. Instead, we did a workout from Insanity called Max Recovery, and later, a workout from P90X+ called Total Body Plus. Max Recovery started out like fast-paced yoga, and I was really enjoying it. Then it got hard. Everything felt great though, and the 45 minutes went by in a flash. I was shocked when he said "time for the cool down!" It felt like 20 minutes. The Total Body Plus workout was a bit of everything; lots of push ups, squats and lunges. It also flew by. It doesn't feel like I did two workouts today, I feel great!

And on that note, Chris took my 90 day photos today, and I compiled my Day 0, 30, 60 and 90 day photos into one. And voila - before and after pictures! I'm so happy with my progress. I love my abs, and I'm definitely going to work to make them better. My arms and shoulders are so toned it's ridiculous, and I actually have calf muscle definition! Loving it!! We'll be doing measurements and weights tomorrow, so I will post those tomorrow - my last post!! I can't believe it!

Hooray!!

Day 88 & 89 - It's official

Christmas ruined P90X!

Real bacon and whole eggs for breakfast? Don't think that's in the meal plan! What a truly awful time to be finishing this program. But, there's hope - Chris said that, when he gets home, he plans on doing the last week over again. Or rather, doing it properly. I'm going to join him. I don't want these last few days to ruin the momentum of P90X, so I guess I'll have more than 90 posts when I'm all done! I'll also be joining Chris for some Insanity workouts to get some cardio and get my heart going.

It's amazing how crappy I've felt at the end of the day, with not working out and eating like this. I'm not used to it, my body isn't used to it, and my muscles feel like they're wasting away! I miss working out! Hahah I never thought I'd say that, but it's true. I miss it!

We're heading back home today, then back to Mom's tomorrow, and back home the next day. So that day, which would be the 28th, we'll restart the last week. I can't let these 90 days end like this!

Day 87 - Christmas Eve!

Happy Christmas Eve day, everyone! We spent the day with the family again, and I showed Chris around town (not that there's much to see!). Tonight we're going to my step-dad's sisters house for dinner, which is a big tradition in their family. Lots of family to see!

As far as working out goes, well... No workout has happened yet. But, this morning I found out my Mom has a yoga mat, and I have a Women's Health yoga app on my iPhone. I'm thinking I'll attempt some yoga, at least 20 minutes, before bed tonight. Will keep you posted.

I feel like such a mega-slacker. Oh, gotta go, the sugar cookies are calling... ;)

Day 86 - Christmas begins

We spent the day preparing for, and then traveling to, my Mom's place for Christmas. It's so nice to be home with her and my step-dad. My grandfather is here too. So great! We decorated the tree last night and had the fire going while snow fell slowly outside. Doesn't get much more perfect than that! But - no working out happened. It's hard to say "Sorry but I have to leave this nice get-together to go work out". I thought that it would be a breeze wrapping up P90X around Christmastime, but it's not so. However, it does make me feel better to know that we're starting it again in January, so all of my hard work won't go to waste.

And oh, the food and treats...

Day 82 - Fountain of Youth

Exciting news. Fountain of Youth is awesome!!! It's a little over 40 minutes, and has a lot less jibber jabber than the P90X Yoga. The poses are a lot more fluent and cohesive, and you never hold upward dog for more than 5 seconds (versus P90X Yoga where it's always at least 10). It felt more like a workout than the other Yoga. Needless to say, we're both very happy with it and I highly recommend it if Yoga is too long for you. It's $19.95 and you can get it here.

We did yoga in the morning, and Back & Biceps in the evening. It was quite late when we finished, so we postponed Ab Ripper to today. Usually in Back & Biceps I use 10 lb weights, but this time, since it was our second last resistance workouts, I upped it to 15 lb. Obviously my reps dropped a bit, but it felt great to use a heavier weight. So that's it - no more Back & Biceps workouts!

Our last resistance workout is on Monday, and it's Legs & Back. Then it's our last recovery week, and then we're done!

Day 80 - Christmas is coming..

With Christmas a mere 8 days away, treats and temptations are extra-hard to resist. A friend of mine brought by some homemade Bits & Bites and peppermint-chocolate cookies. My mom is in a baking frenzy at her house, having completed three full days of cooking and baking. And it is all sooo tempting! Starting P90X, Chris and I gave ourselves three "eating occasions": Thanksgiving, his birthday, and Christmas. For our Christmas dinner I'm not going to worry, but it's the appetizers and snacks and treats leading up to Christmas that I'm worried about! I'm really proud of myself for passing up snacks and treats for the last 80 days, and I know I won't let that all go to hell by pigging out every day around Christmastime. But still, something inside is telling me that something's gotta give.

I think the best thing is going to be moderation. It's unfortunate, but Christmas celebrations are a lot about eating, and the last thing I want is to a) come off as rude or b) feel like I missed out on the celebrating. So here's my plan: I'll have some Christmas treats, but in moderation. Far, far, far less than I would normally have. I figure that this way, I can relax more and enjoy my vacation, and at the same time, not doom my health and body and my hard-earned abs. (Plus, we're doing another round of P90X after Christmas - back on the wagon I go!)

We made tonight our rest day. Tomorrow will be Back & Biceps and Ab Ripper, followed by Yoga the next day (which will be the NEW Fountain of Youth disc that we received!). So, off I go to rest! :)

Seriously. How could you pass that up??

Day 59 - Power Blocks!

Today was a good workout day, a not-so-good diet day. I went to a lunchtime conference where there was pizza and salad being served. I had a piece of BBQ chicken pizza (thinking that this was better for me than pepperoni or works) and a giant salad, fruit and water. Not so bad I guess, but this is the first time in over 59 days that I've had a piece of pizza! That's wild. Before this, Chris and I would order or make a pizza at least once a week!

As far as the workout goes, I did Shoulders & Arms. I like this workout because once it's over, there's so much blood flow to my arms and shoulders that I look HUGE! I don't want to ever look that muscle-y, but it's fun to see how much bigger my arms get when I work them out.

It's hard to believe I'm in Phase 3! I literally don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I'm done with P90X. Obviously I won't stop working out, but it's hard to say how often I will (likely 3-4x a week) or what I'll be doing (Yoga? Dance? Insanity?). I'm just enjoying this program and I'm making the most of it while it lasts. I'm even considering doing it over again, just minus the super-strict diet. Time will tell..

Oh yeah, and Chris got some Power Blocks! He found a used set on Kijiji (which is good because they're very expensive). Power Blocks are dumbbells with adjustable weights, so you can have a set of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 lb weights with only one pair of dumbbells. They're huge space savers, which is great in a tiny little apartment like ours. Chris is loving them! I'll stick with my 5, 8 and 10 lb sets, thanks. :)

The Power Blocks!

Day 34 - Making up for lost time

Today is Sunday, which means I wasn't in school. It's also Daylight Savings today, which means we gained an hour in the day. I woke up at 7:30, kind of by accident thinking it was 8:30, but stayed up and did two loads of laundry, dishes and the Intervals workout before noon (more on that later). Then I went to the mall with Chris, had a chicken hummus wrap for lunch, got groceries, came home, had slow-cooker pork chops, then did Kenpo X followed by Ab Ripper. I'd call that a productive day!

Today I kind of made my own workout schedule. As I was saying yesterday, Chris got P90X+. He did the Intervals workout yesterday and loved them, so we did them together this morning. I loved it! Well, I loved it when it was over and I felt awesome.. Getting through the actual workout was pretty brutal. It's based on interval training, and you do 10 seconds of low-intensity, then 10 seconds of medium-intensity, and finally, 10 seconds of high-intensity. This kind of pattern carries on through the whole workout for every exercise. The first 10 seconds of every exercise were my saving grace from the exercise prior. Intervals is definitely a fantastic cardio workout and I'll be doing it again soon!

We were actually scheduled for Kenpo tonight, and I was thinking about switching that up, but we decided to stick with it. We skipped through the blocks, but we did everything else. And when that was over, I stuck the Ab Ripper disc in and did the entirety of that. So, in total, I guess I did about 2 hours of exercise today! I felt like I had to make up for the last two days, since I was feeling so rotten about missing my workouts. I felt incredible after Intervals, and tired but accomplished after Kenpo and Ab Ripper.

I got my flu shots two days ago (and you should, too!) and the H1N1 vaccine made my arm really tender, like someone punched me in the arm. Because of this, all of my left-handed punches in Kenpo were a little sloppy.   I'm surprised at how much it aches. I still can't sleep on it. But it was worth it!

Chris had slow-cooker pork chops cooking all day, and they turned out to be delicious. He says it was more of an experiment than anything, throwing potatoes, garlic, diced tomatoes, ketchup, barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce and chicken broth in with the pork chops. I'm telling you, slow-cooked is the best way to eat pork chops. They were so tender we didn't even use knives to eat them; they fell right apart. Right after supper we prepped a small chicken by stuffing it with limes and onions (there wasn't much to choose from for stuffing ingredients), soaking him with white wine and chicken broth, and seasoning him with garlic powder, dehydrated onion and oregano. He'll spend all day being cooked and will provide a delicious supper for us tomorrow. We are absolutely obsessed with our slow cooker, can you tell?

I'm heading to bed. Here is a quick photo of me from the Ab Ripper workout - check out them abs! :)

They're coming along nicely!

Day 31 - Chest, Shoulders and Triceps

Today was my first Chest, Shoulders and Triceps workout. I love the triceps workouts.. I hate the push ups. Why oh why are there so many push ups?! Clearly my shoulders and arms are too weak if I'm still finding push ups hard. So, despite hating push ups, I'm happy that they're included because it only means that I'll get better at them! I really like the triceps kickback workouts. I'm impressed with Tony's creativity - he takes one move and turns it into four or five moves, which keeps in interesting. This is key! There's nothing worse than pushing yourself through a workout that you hate doing. Breaking up a brutal triceps workout into five shorter, different workouts was brilliant.

We had chicken breasts and boiled squash for supper tonight, and if you know me, you know I LOVE squash. Chris cooked it, god love him, and it was very tasty. We're always on the lookout for meal ideas, so if you have any, post a comment for me! I'd love to hear some suggestions.

Otherwise, that's it for me - I have an early early morning tomorrow. Story of my life!

Day 30 - 1/3 complete!

Day 30! DAY 30! I'm so excited that I reached this milestone knowing that I gave 100% in my workouts and my diet. I celebrated by switching Cardio X for Plyometrics - talk about a celebration! I was jumping around and throwing my hands in the air like you wouldn't believe. This was my first time doing Plyo, thanks to a suggestion from Chris. I like the Cardio workout, but it's so short! I feel like I'm just getting going, and then it's over. Plyo is the full hour, which I love, and there is NO rest time between moves. I finish up a set, I'm sweating like hell, I'm breathing heavy and I'm tremendously thirsty, but no! No break! On to the next move! Though Tony's gracious enough to give us 30 seconds between every 8 moves. Enough time to wipe the sweat out of my eyes and have a sip of water, then back at it! I'm telling you, it's brutal at the time. I sound like a primitive animal, grunting, panting and whining. But as soon as he says we're done, this incredible feeling of achievement washed over me and I feel like I could do it all over again! (I never would, but you get the point.)

I'm still adjusting to the diet change. One less protein, one more carb. I had a 6-inch sub from Subway today (280 calories, 1/2 serving of protein, 1 serving of carb, 1/4 serving of fat), and it was really delicious. The back of the Nutrition Guide gives you some guidelines for fast food joints, in case time isn't on your side. There are 12 items from Subway listed, 3 items from McDonald's, 2 form Burger King, 3 from Pizza Hut, 5 from Wendy's, etc. There are also guidelines for buying microwave dinners, which - thankfully - we haven't had to resort to yet. We went out and bought these cute little mini bagels, as well as some real bagels and English muffins (which, ironically, rang up as "Muffins Anglais" on the receipt...). Our cart held more bread than I had seen in the last month.

Can you tell I'm excited about the carb increase? I know, I know, "is she seriously still talking about the damn carb?" Okay. I'll move on.

I have a new appreciation for Lululemon. I have a duffel bag of theirs from a while back, and a couple headbands, but I never got any clothing because of the price. A few weeks ago, I bought my first Lulu sportsbra (love!!). A couple weeks later, I bought a pair of shorts. Then the other day, I bought another pair of shorts. Because they're INCREDIBLE! Seriously! Those shorts are tight enough that they don't budge, but they don't ride up or chafe or anything, even during the most intense workouts. So, I'm officially a Lulu addict. This is not a good thing for the bank account. There will definitely be some Lulu items on my Christmas list..!

 

Love the fit of these ones             These are my favourite

                                              (and they were on sale!)

Day 24 - A lot about food

In contrast to yesterday, I feel magnificent today. I'm surprised at this, because I've barely drank any water at all, when I usually try to drink 2-3 litres a day. But I'm not complaining! We just finished Kenpo X, and as usual, it made me sweat like hell. Starting out, my right shoulder was sore, but that seemed to dissipate once I threw some punches and got moving.

About a week ago Chris bought some weighted gloves, and I thought I'd never see the day when I wanted a pair for myself, but.. I want a pair for myself! I did the workout holding 1lb weights, and I found that it improved my form drastically. My punches and blocks were much more fluent with the extra weight, so that's added to my "To Buy" list (along with a second yoga mat, so we can stop having to share ours).

I have a pretty solid routine going with my nutrition plan. A normal day would be as follows:

Breakfast - Scrambled egg whites, three slices of chicken bacon, half an English muffin and a coffee later
Snack - Two yogurts and my fruit
Lunch - Whatever I packed (usually a chicken breast sandwich on an English muffin) and a veggie serving
Snack - A delicious chocolatey protein bar
Supper - Varies
Snack - Protein shake post-workout, and frozen yogurt for blog posting

From a nutritional perspective, I hate when the weekend comes. It completely throws off my routine. The biggest issue is breakfast; I'm used to eating at 6:00, and on weekends that gets bumped to 9:00 or 10:00, which is usually the time I'd be eating my first snack. So, long story short, I dread weekends because it feels like I'm stuffing myself and eating all day. Yes, it could easily be solved by getting up at my normal weekday time, but honestly.. I'd rather have the extra sleep!

Tomorrow and Saturday I'll be at a conference, where there is food provided. I'll do my best to stay on track, as far as portions go. And tomorrow is X Stretch day, hooray! The easy one! :)

This is our serving charts, made by yours truly. This way we

can keep track of what we've eaten as the day goes on. It

works incredibly well! Chris's is on the left, mine on the right.

Day 21 - Three weeks!

Because of our schedule switcheroo, we did Kenpo today instead of taking our rest day. I'm still on the fence with Kenpo. I noticed today that Tony takes a lot of breaks, where he gives you five seconds to get some water,  then gets you running, doing jumping jacks and X's. Cardio, cardio, cardio. I suspect that this is to get our hearts pumping, since the Kenpo doesn't really do that. Well, I shouldn't say that.. It just doesn't do it as well as jumping jacks. I strained my neck too, which has settled a little. Chris bought weighted gloves that he used during the workout, and he found they made a huge difference. I might look into that down the road, when I get a little better at my punches. As far as my opinion on Kenpo goes... Meh. It's not looking good, but it still has time to win me over.

We have chili made up to put in the slow cooker tomorrow morning. Lean ground beef, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder, and other spices. Pretty simple! We tried to get ground turkey, but there wasn't any at the grocery store today for some reason. I'm really excited to come home tomorrow and smell it cooking.. Mmm-mmm!

So, today marks 21 days! That means Phase 1 is almost complete! This week is rest week, which hardly constitutes "rest". Yoga, Core Synergistics, Kenpo, Stretch, Core Synergistics, Yoga, Stretch. Intense! Tomorrow is Yoga again, seems like I just did Yoga. Oh wait, I did! Looking forward to it though, still. I only wish I didn't have to do so many damn downward dogs.

Also, my cat found my yoga block (silly me for leaving it on the floor), and he decided to use it to sharpen his claws. I wasn't mad, because really, it still serves its purpose. This is what I have to contend with. Who could be mad at that face?

 

A face only a mother could love.

Day 15 - Best workout yet!

After a long day of exam-writing and studying, I came home and had the BEST workout yet! I did Core Synergistics, and I can finally do a proper banana! I know how weird that sounds. Banana is when you lay on your back with your legs straight out and off the ground, and your arms above your head. Basically, you look like a banana. Then Tony gets you to roll and hold it on your right side, then belly, then left side, and so on. And I rocked it! I'm so proud.

I love this workout because I'm completely into it. I enjoyed running, but it got boring and I really plateaued after a while.  That was frustrating, because I was working at something that I wasn't seeing any results from. Mind you, I wasn't following this strict diet plan either. I'm not ruling out running entirely, but I'm glad to be done with it for a little while. It was getting tiring.

As busy as I am, I love coming home to do these workouts. I look forward to them throughout the day as a chance to blow off some steam, and I always feel so much better afterward. After tonight's workout, I ate supper, then sat down and studied for two hours. I usually have a hard time focusing this late in the day, but I had a really clear mind and I attribute that to the exercise. And - the best part! - I'm thisclose to putting my palms flat on the ground during my hamstring stretches. I couldn't even touch the ground when I first started! Yaayyyy!

Tomorrow's a 10-hour day, and I'm already looking forward to my one hour of solace: Cardio. Can't wait!

Banana!

Day 9 - The Power of Exercise

Today wasn't good. Well, I shouldn't say that. This evening wasn't good. Allow me to elaborate.

I was at school all day. My classes ended at 6:00, and then I had a meeting to go to. After that, I realized I couldn't catch a bus from where I was, so I had to walk a kilometre to the nearest bus stop in the pouring rain and 50km winds. No boots, no raincoat, no umbrella (although that wouldn't have done me much good, since I saw a few people struggling to keep theirs right-side out). I get to the bus stop and I'm mulling over everything on my to-do list, totally stressing myself out. The bus comes, I get home, and Chris is making a stir fry. I'm soaked and tired and hungry, and the last thing I want to do is a stupid workout. Chris is trying to talk me into doing it, saying it won't take long. But all I can think of is my massive to-do list.

Then I sat down and flipped through the book of DVD workouts, landing on Cardio X. There Tony stands, every muscle in his body highlighted in the black and white picture. I'm thinking, "I feel shitty right now. I'm cranky, I'm tired, and I'm stressed." Then I looked at Tony again, and flipped through and looked at the other photos. The Plyometrics sleeve was empty, from Chris's completed workout an hour prior. Then I thought, "There will be days when I feel like garbage. There will be days when I'm so tired I can't function, and days when I'm so sick I can't get out of bed. Those are the days I should take off as rest days. I ate extremely well today, I don't want to waste that. It's only one workout. I can do this. I should do this."

And so, I got changed, got my water, set up my mat, put in Cardio X and pressed play. And pressing play, folks, was the hardest part of my workout.

Within minutes I was less cranky. I even smiled when I did my hamstring stretch and touched the floor. As I warmed up, the stress left me. It literally melted away. I suddenly felt rejuvenated, and with some stretches, strain, and lots of sweat, I finished the workout I had been dreading only 40 minutes prior. And now I have a clear mind to focus, and a clear conscience to boot. And I'm much, much happier. That's the power of exercise.

The inspiration!

Day 6 - Kenpo, whoa!

Of all the workouts in the Lean program, Kenpo takes the cake for making me sweat the most. Ho-ly cow. Kenpo X is based on a form of martial arts, and, according to the fitness guide, is "a raw streetfighting style" that gives "a high-intensity cardiovascular workout". Before we started, we were reading all these discussion threads with people saying it doesn't work, they didn't feel anything from it, it hardly got them sweating, etc etc etc, so we didn't know what to expect. 

Well, I'm pretty sure that a constant stream of sweat in your eyes and a heart rate of 160 means it's working. I loved it! It felt great, I felt great, and I can still feel it in my upper arms. It definitely is a high-intensity workout.

Earlier, despite the pouring rain, Chris and I headed to the grocery store since he failed to tell me that we were out of eggs. You really can't run out of eggs when following the nutrition plan, so off to Superstore we went. Chris mentioned a few days back that we should compare prices of a dozen eggs versus a carton of egg whites, since we throw away the yolks anyway. Turns out, 500ml of egg whites (which is equivalent to 16 egg whites) was $2.69, which was a little cheaper than a dozen eggs, plus, we got 16 instead of 12. So we bought two cartons.

On that same food tangent, Chris made supper tonight - turkey meatloaf! I don't know why, but I'm crazy about meatloaf. I love it, and turkey meatloaf was no different. It was delicious! The recipe is in the nutrition guide that comes with the program, so if anyone has it, I recommend it. Along with the Island Pork Tenderloin. Mmmm..

It's hard to believe I'm on day six already. Tomorrow is rest day, which means I can either rest and not work out, or do the Stretch X workout. I think I'd feel like I was failing Tony if I didn't do ANYTHING, so I'm going to do the Stretch workout. I hope it feels as good as it sounds, because this sore body could use a good stretch.

And now, a picture of me, immediately post-Kenpo workout:

Beautiful, glorious sweat!

Day 5 - Oblique V's are my nemesis!

I just finished my first legs and back workout, and one thing is clear: I suck at chin-ups.

Well, in my defense, this time last year I wouldn't dream of grabbing on to a pull-up bar. I can only do one, but it's better than none. And on good days, I can do two! Not exactly a number to boast about, but hey, I'm happy with it.

I also did Ab Ripper for the second time, and my movements were a little more coordinated since I knew what to expect. The oblique V's still kill me, but I managed to get about 10 in on the left side.. Right side wasn't so good, so I did a plank instead. Someday I'll get those damn oblique V's.

Today was beautiful, so Chris and I had a nice day together about town. We went into this grocery store here called Planet Organic, and I was overwhelmed since I'd never been there before. It was much bigger than I was expecting (and smelled strongly of patchouli). We wandered, noted some soy cheese cake, and left with a bulk bag of soy nuts and some pesto flavoured veggie crisps. I've already sampled them, and they're delicious. Then we made our way to our regular grocery store to buy some soy cheese to try.

We had those veggie sausages for lunch today, and they were amazing! They tasted more like hot dogs than sausages, but they had a smoked taste and they were delicious. I'm very impressed. I also made chicken scrambled eggs for breakfast, which was a great change from plain old scrambled egg whites. But I have a confession: I really, really, really miss my cereal. I used to eat cereal for breakfast every single morning, and I'm surprised at how much I miss it. In Phase II, I get two carbs a day, so I'll be having cereal some mornings.

Besides that, not much else to tell! I haven't noticed a huge increase in my energy levels, but I'm definitely getting stronger. My abs look pretty good right now, which makes me very excited to see them in 85 days. And at the end of the day, when I'm eating my frozen yogurt and relaxing, it's great to know that I ate clean and did my full workout. Since I'm doing P90X, I may as well bring it, and it feels phenomenal to know that I  gave it my all!

Sweaty and poor quality, but there's some progress there!

Day 4

Since starting P90X and its strict nutrition plan, I've been offered candies and donuts and treats every day. Mind you, it's only been four days, but it's interesting because it seemed like an odd coincidence until I started thinking about it. Then I realized that, likely, I was offered treats before starting P90X, and I would always accept them. Hard sugary candies, chewy sour candies, leftovers from bake sales.. I would have been fine without them, but I would take them to be gracious, and only harm myself in the process. One of my favourite treats were passed around today - the mini chocolate bars for Halloween - and I said 'no thank you, I have a banana'. My friends laugh, but they're all really supportive, which is great because no one likes the "Oh, go ahead, surely YOU can afford to have a cookie" friend.

Which gets me on to another topic. I've noticed something. When I mention to someone that I'm following a strict workout and nutrition regimen (using those words), they're fine with that. But the second the word "diet" leaves my lips, their jaws hit the floor and they look me up and down and say, "Why do YOU need to DIET?!" First of all, I'm not dieting in the classic sense of the word, and secondly, thank you for judging me outright in front of (presumably) all these people and putting me on the spot to defend myself.

Seriously! This happens all the time. Yes, I'm thin. No, I don't think that just because I'm thin I should forget about keeping myself this way. Why praise a 170lb woman for dieting, yet discourage me from doing it? I just don't get the double standard.

Sorry, that was a little tangential.

This morning for breakfast (at 5:45am) I tried a soy sausage muffin, and I hated it. I keep saying that it was too early for meat, and Chris is quick to correct me and say that they're meatless. Fine, but it's still too early for simulated meat. Chicken bacon I can do. Soy sausage patties, not so much. They did last me until 9:30 though, so bonus points for that. Lunch was a chicken breast sandwich with a yogurt, banana, tomatoes, a small can of tuna, and half a protein bar. Now, supper.. was.. amazing.

There's a recipe in the nutrition guide for Island Pork Tenderloin Salad, and I HIGHLY recommend it. We kept the pork separate from the salad (because it was so delicious it needed to be savoured alone), and it's kept me full all night. It's bedtime, we ate at 5:00 and I'm not hungry in the least bit. My god, it was so delicious.

I finished my first ever yoga workout tonight, and I'm really happy with it. There are some crazy advanced moves, but for the most part, they were manageable and I was covered in sweat by the time I was done. Tony says this is a good thing. I felt it most in my quads and glutes, which makes me sad since they were just starting to heal from my first core workout. BUT! It's the weekend, and it's bedtime, and I'm sleeping in tomorrow - yessss!

Day 2

So, today I learned three things.

One: P90X makes me very, very sore in the morning. After core synergistics yesterday, I woke up this morning and felt like I had been riding horseback all night. I blame this specifically on the low lateral skaters move.

Two: Pushing through that achy soreness tonight to complete the cardio workout paid off. I felt the stiffness fade away after only 5 minutes, plus warm up. And now I'm sitting here, content in knowing that I ate exactly what I was supposed to eat today, I did my workout, and I'm showered and it's done.

Three: Waterproof mascara is not sweat proof. I noticed this after coming out of two workouts looking like a flushed sweaty zombie. Here I was spending money on good quality eye-makeup remover, when I could have just sweat it off. Good to know!

Seriously though, so far so good. Besides moaning like an 80-year-old woman every time I tried to stand up, I had a good day. I'm glad the meals are sufficient, because I like to eat lots of small meals in a day. For breakfast we had scrambled egg whites, chicken bacon and half an English muffin (which, again, stayed with me for about 3 1/2 hours), and for lunch I took a shaved chicken breast on English muffin sandwich, two yogurts, a small can of tuna, strawberries, cucumbers, and half a protein bar. Lunch lasted me until 7:00, when I got home and had tofu stirfry and quinoa. Then I did my workout, showered, and polished off some frozen yogurt.

Right now, I'm very tired. I have some work to do, and I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning.. So enough procrastinating! Thanks for reading, leave me some comments! :)

At least it wasn't this bad.

Day 1

Hi everyone, whoever "everyone" is, and welcome to my blog. I plan to write about and describe (in detail) the torture, pain and discipline that is to become my life.

If you don't know about it already, P90X is a workout and nutrition system. A really intense workout and nutrition system. It comes with 12 workout DVD's, in which Tony Horton takes us through the workouts, along with three of his buddies, who change depending on the workout. The nutrition plan is in 3 phases, and is based on caloric intake. This was disappointing because I've always been a huge advocate for NOT counting calories, but instead understanding what it is you're eating and why it's doing you good (or harm). But, I can put this aside for these 90 days and become a calorie counter. Although, it's not so much about calorie counting so much as it's about servings. For example, each day I'm allowed 5 servings of protein, 2 dairy, 1 fruit, 2 vegetables, 1 fat, 1 carb, 1 snack and 1 protein bar.

Today, being the first day, I've discovered that this nutrition plan is more than sufficient. This morning, we had egg whites, chicken bacon and half an English muffin for breakfast at 6:45. (Oh, who's "we"? My boyfriend, Chris, is also doing P90X.. We're P90X partners.) Anyway, this meal lasted with me until about 10:00, which is a big change for me since I usually have cereal and end up starving by 9:00.

My first workout was core synergistics, which, as described in the fitness guide, "focuses on strengthening the lumbar spine and trunk muscles, which are the foundation for all the other muscles in the body". I'm excited about this one because I have a curvature in my spine (scoliosis), and I've heard time and time again that strengthening the core will help with the pain.

The workout was tough. There were parts I couldn't do (like the chaturanga run), but I wasn't discouraged. I just hope I'll be able to do the whole thing at the end of these three months!

SO! Starting stats:
Female
23 years old
5'5"
124lbs
19% body fat

Fit test results:
Pull-ups: 1/2 (yes, that counts)
Vertical leap: 9"
Push-ups: 7
Toe touch: -5" (hoping for major improvement here)
Wall squat: 1:03
Bicep curls: 23 with 10lb weights
In & Outs: 21

Just so we're clear, I am absolutely not doing this program to lose weight. What I want is this: to come out of the program with a stronger, leaner body and habitually good eating habits. Not that they're bad now, but.. I'M A SUCKER FOR PASTRIES!! But no more!

I really hope you'll all follow me through my journey. I'll try to post every day, even if it's just a quick "I'm TOO tired to post!" But I'm a full-time student as well, so finding time may be tricky. I'll do my best.